St Helens held off a half fightback by Huddersfield to remain unbeaten in 2021
Last Updated: 22/04/21 11:36pm
1:01
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf was pleased with his side’s first-half performance but felt their intensity dropped in the second as they beat Huddersfield in the Super League
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf was pleased with his side’s first-half performance but felt their intensity dropped in the second as they beat Huddersfield in the Super League
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf insists his team has plenty more to give despite recording their fourth win of the season with an 18-10 defeat of Huddersfield.
The reigning champions added the Giants to their list of scalps in 2021 and remain unbeaten.
Saints took a 12-0 lead into half-time and then added a third try before holding off the home team in the second half to claim the victory.
1:39 Highlights of the Betfred Super League clash between Huddersfield and St Helens
But Woolf believes his side can play much better and will do so as the campaign progresses.
“I’m happy with how we’re travelling along,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of improvement in us. What we’re doing is we’re all willing to work really hard.
“We know that we’re going to get better with the ball. I was a bit disappointed with the two tries we let in.
“We defended for long periods and then let in easy tries. That’s something we need to look at and improve.”
2:02 St Helens’ Jack Welsby says he is keen to keep on improving and learning his trade but is still unsure on what his natural position is.
Woolf admitted it was a brutal contest and his men were fully tested by the Giants.
“It certainly was very attritional,” he said. “As we knew they would do Huddersfield came to play and they were desperate, and that made it hard.
“I was really happy with what we did in the first half. But we were quick to find things and made some errors off the back of that.
“In the second we had some really uncharacteristic errors at the start of the second half. But we were good enough to turn that around.
“All in all a good, tough win.”
1:50 St Helens’ Jonny Lomax says that their game against the Huddersfield Giants was the toughest so far this season in the Super League
Huddersfield coach Ian Watson shrugged off concern over his side’s winless start to Super League and says they are “moving in the right direction”.
The Giants have now lost four from four but Watson, the former Salford boss who took over at the west Yorkshire outfit at the end of last year, can see signs of improvement and is remaining confident.
“It was massively a step in the right direction,” he said.
“It’s what we’ve been talking about and that’s competing with the best teams. I thought we stood up really, really well in the first half.
1:08 Huddersfield Giants coach Ian Watson believes a result is coming for his team as they continue to build their process after a defeat against St Helens in the Super League
“St Helens are very good at playing cup final footy, they know how to get into a grind and suffocate you with the way they play.
“It has to be educated and taught that to have that kind of system.
“We defended really well for large periods. It shows we can handle that kind of pressure.”
Watson was pleased with the mentality his players showed and the character they displayed to score two tries in the second half.
“If we turned up with that mentality at Hull KR last weekend we win,” he said.
“I’m more than confident going forward we’ll compete and beat teams. We’re going through a tough lesson at the moment.
“Saints got away from us today but our start was a hell of a lot better today. It’s moving in the right direction.
“It will turn, 100 per cent. It’s about continuity. You have to build the foundations before you’re successful. It takes time.”
